Why we are leaving the ACA individual market in 2018

We recently announced that as of January 1, 2018, we will no longer offer ACA-compliant individual health plans. We understand this decision is disruptive and disappointing for the members impacted by our decision.

We wanted to remain in the private individual market—even after significant losses in our ACA-compliant plans forced our exit from the federal Marketplace in 2017. However, claim costs continue to far outpace premiums for ACA-compliant individual plans, and this, coupled with the continued instability of the ACA and increasing uncertainty about the timing, shape and form of its replacement, led us to make this difficult decision.

We have a responsibility to all our members to remain stable and secure. That responsibility would have been at risk if we continued to sustain losses in our ACA-compliant individual line of business, and we didn’t want this to begin to negatively impact rates for customers covered under our other lines of business.

The U.S. health care system is at a critical crossroads. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Nebraska has been serving generations of Nebraskans for nearly 80 years. We know what it takes to make health insurance markets work. We believe the health care system can be fixed.